Rabbi Toba's Shabbat Thoughts

Please enjoy these excerpts from Rabbi Toba's weekly pre-Shabbat emails, and contact admin@dorsheitzedek.org to be added to the mailing list!

It was heartrending this week to learn of the tragic airline collision in Washington, DC that resulted in so many deaths. The figure skating community in the Boston area was particularly affected, as a number of the passengers were part of that community. Adding to the suffering where the incomprehensibly offensive remarks from the President in response. May those words vanish into the dustbin of history, and may all those who lost family and...Read more...

There is much that is looming as we enter into Shabbat—both the hoped-for cease-fire in Israel and Gaza, and the inauguration this coming Monday. There were so many moments since last November when I felt tentatively hopeful that a ceasefire between Hamas and the Israeli government was imminent, only to have those hopes dashed. In this moment, the possibility of a significant pause in the relentless bombardment of Gaza, a massive...Read more...

This week we lost one of the greats of American literature, as well as a great human being, activist, and educator – Nikki Giovanni.  In this moment when so much seems to be going so wrong in so many parts of the world, I found in her poem, The Song of the Feet, published in 2002, a long view that I find both sobering and inspiring.  May we be honored to walk in her footsteps, and may her memory be for a...Read more...

This past Wednesday was Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience. It is a day to mourn trans people past and present who have lost their lives to transphobic hate and violence, and also a day to recommit to fighting for the dignity and rights of a community that in this moment is in the cross-hairs of the most reactionary elements of our society.  We as a congregation have made great strides in becoming a spiritually...Read more...

I know many--if not of all of us--are feeling a lot of stress as we head into this week of the election. In addition to worry about the outcome of the election,  I know there is also concern that the voting process itself, and/or its aftermath, may be disrupted by violence or other kinds of obstruction. 

I wish I could offer words to counter-act these fears.  But the reality is it’s impossible to know what is coming,...Read more...

At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, the Israelites are given instructions for when they bring the first harvest of the promised land as an offering to the Temple. They are told: “And you shall be joyful in all the good that YHVH your God has given you.” Later in the portion, Moses recites beautiful words of blessing, a promise of all the good that will come if the Israelites heed God’s voice, followed by over...Read more...

As we bring this difficult week to a close, I feel heartbroken that just a few days after the murders of six young Israelis held hostage by Hamas, a Turkish-American activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was shot and killed at a protest, along with a the shooting death of a 13 year-old Palestinian girl, Bana Laboum, both in the West Bank, both by the Israeli army. All of these these individual losses come in the midst of an ongoing torrent of death,...Read more...

One of my favorite books about the High Holydays is This is Real & You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation, by Rabbi Alan Lew.  In it, Rabbi Lew brings together his background in Zen Buddhism with his profound Jewish knowledge to explore the spiritual power of the Days of Awe and the days surrounding them.

In framing these holy days as a “journey,” Lew interestingly begins not...Read more...

In this week’s Torah portion, Sh’lach lecha, we read about one of the great crises in the story of the Israelites’ journey in the wilderness.  Having arrived at the border of the promised land, Moses instructs 12 scouts to go in and gather information in preparation for the entire community going in.  When the scouts get back, ten of them report that the land is indeed good, but that “the people who inhabit the...Read more...

I was in NYC this week for the T’ruah gala, and it was a wonderful event. We had 15 CDT members in person, and many many more Zooming in – I am so appreciative of all of the support, plus all of the donations so many made in my honor. Thank you!  I am not entirely comfortable being in the spotlight in this particular way, so it was really wonderful to be able to share the evening with such an amazing group of honorees.  We’ll...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion, Behar, contains some of the most radical concepts in the entire Torah. It includes the rules for the sabbatical or shemittah year, when the land was given a rest from formal planting and harvesting, and all agricultural laborers had the entire year off. The laws of private property were relaxed, so that anyone (especially those who did not own land themselves) could come onto anyone’s land to...Read more...

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Hagadol, “the great Shabbat,” most likely in honor of the special haftarah, a selection from the prophet Malachi that warns of a “great day” coming, an era of justice and healing. More colloquially, it took on this name because the rabbi would give a really long sermon about keeping the rules of Passover kashrut!
 
While I won’t be haranguing  anyone about their kashrut observance, I...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion, Tzav, is the second in the book of Vayikra/Leviticus, a book dedicated to the various priestly rituals and laws relating to the Temple in Jerusalem.  At the heart of priestly practice was the sacrificial system, in which Israelites would bring offerings to the Temple – grains, fruits, and animals – as a korban, an offering meant to bring the person closer to an experience of the...Read more...

In this week’s Torah portion, Pekudei, we come to the end of the book of Exodus with an account of the completion of the building of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the desert.  The final verses of Exodus recount Moses setting up each piece of the Mishkan, which was crafted by the people, and then, the “God cloud” descending to indicate YHVH’s Presence within the Mishkan.

Rabbi Shefa Gold shares a beautiful...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion is Ki Tisa, which relates the episode of the Golden Calf, which the Israelites create in a panic at Moses’ absence on Mount Sinai.  There is a very interesting analysis by biblical scholar Jacob Milgrom of what he calls the “Hexateuch,” the 6 books from Genesis through the book of Joshua (Joshua is the book immediately following Deuteronomy, the last of the “five books of Moses,” in the Hebrew...Read more...